The invention relates to a system for controlling a reproduction machine, and more particularly, to a bootable control for such reproduction machines.
As reproduction machines such as copiers and printers become more complex and versatile in the jobs they can do, the interface between the machine and the machine control must necessarily be expanded if full and efficient utilization of the machine is to be realized. A suitable interface must not only provide the controls, displays, and messages necessary to activate, program, monitor, and maintain the machine, but must allow for both flexible and alternate means for transferring and changing the machine system control software, including the means to boot the system control software from non-resident memory to the machine random access memory.
The prior art is replete with user interface systems. For example, the Xerox 5700 Electronic Printing System incorporates a touch control CRT screen providing button, key, and window images on the screen combined with text to give concise instructions to the operator. This system accepts magnetic cards, cassettes, and disks that store the documents to be printed and also the magnetic media can store control information to specify the output format for printing or to invoke special features such as merging or interleaving. The system software translates the coded data, formats the page, and generates the hard copy locally, or the system can transmit the data via a communication link to remote 5700 printing sites.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,560 discloses a copier which functions according to a sequence control program stored on floppy disk and loaded by a user. The floppy disk can also contain a diagnostic program to facilitate maintenance, and further act as a key to prevent unauthorized use of the copier. U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,483 discloses a laser printer including a microprocessor to read data or program information from a cartridge loaded by a user. A special maintenance operating system on the cartridge runs the printer through automatic routines to be checked by a technician.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,557 discloses a method for controlling software configurations. Portable media, such as a floppy disk, contain a bootstrap program for loading an operating system into the system. A second portable media contains a program for altering the software configuration of the system. U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,299 to discloses a reproduction mechine with a programmable computer capable of operating various machine components. Memory in the computer contains a plurality of different operating programs. Diagnostic programs are accessible through the operator console. U.S. Pat. No. 4,480,329 to Grodebeke discloses a controller in a copier system that contains several diagnostic procedures in memory. A set of switches select either normal operating mode or diagnostic mode.
A difficulty with the prior art reproduction machine systems is the inability to load selected sysem software bootable files from a nonresident memory to the system random access memory. It would be desirable in a reproduction machine to be able to add additional system software and functions without the need to change any hardware in the system and to be able to selectively scan a floppy disk for bootable attributes and boot selected files into RAM. It is an object, therefore, of the present invention to provide a new an improved technique for loading and executing non-resident software controls in a reproduction machine. Further advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds, and the features characterizing the invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specification.